Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
Background of the Invention
This invention relates to mail handling systems and
more particularly to systems and apparatus for ori~nt:ing and
feeding postage indicia bearing mail for further processing
such as facing and cancelling o~ postage.
Automated postal operations have utilized meehanized
mail handling systems of varying complexities to convey, orient,
and face individual pieces of mail for the cancellat.ion of postage
indicia thereon. Pieces of mail, sueh as envelopes, having their
longer edges aligned may nevertheless be randomly oriented with
respeet to postage indicia so that the indicia may be earried on
the front face or reverse ~ace, at the top or at the bottom, or
adjacent the right or left edge of the.envelope. ~or convenient :.
eancelling of postage, the mail is desirably oxiented and "faced";
that is, all envelopes should be arranged with the postage indicia
side facing the same direction when viewed to place the indicia
. generally in the upper right corner of the envelope.
.S. Patent No. 2,929,490 (Stewart) issued March 22,
1960 discloses facing and stacking apparatus utilizing complex
20 meehanical and eleetrical signal operated pneumatic devices for
postage indicia orientation. In U.S. Patent No. 3,140,780
(Richert et al) issued July 14, 1964 there is disclosed an article
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eonveyi-ng system utilizing two branching conveying ehannels which
receive articles from an input channel according to a distri~ut;.on
-l determined by suction means eontained in drums rotating in the
!i~ ' eonveying ehannels. U.S. Patent No. 3,698,538 tGroeber) issued
Oetober 17, 1972 discloses a pneum~ic roll device for faeing a
B singulated letter in response to a stamp detector.. Conveying
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means with tra~lsfer switch mechanisms as in U.S. Patent No.
3,612,2~9 (Schnelder) issued October 12, 1971 and sheet and card
inverters as in U.S. Patent No. 3,523,6~7 (Petersen et al) issued
August 11, 1970 are also known.
Thus, prior art attempts at providing systems for
orienting and conveying mail bearing postage indicia have been
many and varied. However, the desire to i.ncrease system reliability
by minimizing the complexity of operating par-ts, such as are
present in the electromechanical-pneumatic devices of the prior art,
nevertheless exists.
Summar of the Invention
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.~ The present invention provides a system and apparatus for
accepting randomly arranged mail, determining -the presence and
location of postage indicia on the individual mail pieces and
feeding the individual mail pieces bidirectionally in response to
.. the determination of location of indicia to orient the same so that
: all indicia appears either entirely on the leading edge or entirely
: on the trailing edge of the conveyed mail pieces~
; The mail orienting and feeding apparatus of this invention
~ 20 singulakes randomly stacked indicia bearing mail pieces, the edges
.~ of which have been registered against the side rail of a feed deck .
so that the location of the indicia is a predictable position, by
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~. receiving them vertically downward between feed and separation
~ xollers. Indicia detectors scan one edge of the single mail pieces
.~ during their downward translation to detect whether or not there is
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: ~ postaye indicia, such as a stamp o~ postaye meter imprint, on that edge~.
: The mail yiece moves down further into a movable chute-like
receptacle which is positionable to direct the mail piece to
onveyors for further feeding in response to a signal
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depending upon whether or not indicia is detected to be
present on the edge.
The mail receptacle may advantageously be an open
ended drop chute pivotable ~o ~ r of three positions:
neutral, in which the mail piece is ~ed into the chute from
the feed roller and remains in the chute, and two opposed,
~ ~.9., front and rear, positions, in which ejection means
-- contact the mail piece in the chute to propel the piece
; to either the left or to the right where further feed is
continued by transport belts forming part of separate conveyors
~; aligned with that chute position. The conveyors unite intoa single conveyor so that the streams of mail pieces which
have been ejected bidirectionally come together in an alignment
such that the postage indicia are all present on the lead
edge of the mail pieces, at either the top or bottom.
~ The ou~put of the orienting and bidirectional mail
I feeding system and apparatus provides a stream of mail pieces
having the indicia on either the top or bottom lead edge
and therefore the output can be utilized in further mail
handling and processing. Thus, the output ~ay be gated
to either a bypass or to a 180 degree twist belt, upon signal
rom-an indicia detector, to function as a letter facing
achine~and may provide feed to an optical character recognition
sy tem. Also tbe output of the orienting and bidirectional
mail~feeding system and apparatus can be conveniently fed
direc~ly into the facer machine of a facer-canceller apparatus
containing an indicia detector and, since there is a bypass
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and 180 degree twist belt betweea the facer and canceller
~achines, the output of the canceller machine con~titutes
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both faced and cancelled mail.
Another advantage of the mail orienting and feeding
system and apparatus of this invention is the provision of a
minimum number of signal-operated parts which reduces the need for
on-and-off operation of various drive components and provides also
for a greater mechanical simplicity in the reduction of articulated
and movable elements so that increased reliability is obtained.
While the orienting and feeding system and apparatus of
this invention find advantageous utility in postal system mail
handling, they are also useful for the processing of other flat,
sheet-like articles having other types of indicia thereon and the
latter are intended to be encompassed by the term "mail" as used
herein.
Accordingly, a feature of this invention is the provision
of a mail orienting and feeding system and apparatus for orienting
randomly arranged mail and feeding it to provide a single mail
stream with the postage indicia on individual pieces thereof all
appearing at one edge.
In summary of the above, therefore, the present invention
may be broadly defined as a mail handling apparatus comprising
feeding means for individually feeding mail pieces to an indicia
detection means for detecting the location of postage indicia on
the mail pieces, receptacle means for receiving the mail pieces,
the receptacle means being positionable to at least two positions
aligned with two separate conveying means, and e~ection means
operatively located at the receptacle means positions aligned with
the conveying means for ejecting mail pieces from the receptacle
means to direct them to the conveying means ak that position.
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Other features, objects and advantages of this invention
will be more apparent from the following detailed descr.ip-tion
thereoE takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings in
which:
Brief Description of _ e Draw.in~s
FIGURE 1 is a top perspective schematic view of a
mail orienting and feeding system and apparatus according to an
embodiment of this invention;
FIGURE 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the mail
orienting and feeding apparatus for directing the ~ail pieces
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shown as par~ of the system of FIGURE l;
FIGURE 3, appearing on the same sheet as Figure 1,
is a side view, partly in section, of the mail piece chute
receptacle of the apparatus shown in FIGU~ 2, showing its
pivotable positions; and
FIGURE 4 is a top perspective schematic view of a
continuation of the output conveyor shown in FIGURE 1 further
showing an envelope inverting means which provides an output
of completely faced envelope.
; 10 Description of *he Preferred Embodiment
FIGURE 1 schematically illustrates a mail orienting
and feeding system 10 in which randomly stacked individual
mail pieces, such as envelopes 2 and 6, are fed, in a mail
feeding station 12, downward past an indicia detecting station
14 to a mail orienting station 16 from which they are either
ejected to the right to a conveyor 18 or to the le~t to
a conveyor 20 ~rom whence they are recombined into a slngle
stream in an output conveyor 22.
Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2, there is shown a feed
deck -30 on which is placed randomly stacked pieces o~ mail such
as the envelopes 2 and 6. The feed deck 30 includes edge
registration belts 32 which move in the direction of the arrows
34 in the plane of the feed deck 30 to urge the individual mail
pieces against the side and fron-t registration walls, 36 and 38
respectively.
A mail orienting and ~eeding apparatus 40 is positioned
beneath the ~eed deck 30. Individual mail pieces are fed downward
from the eed deck 30 and into the auxiliary feed roller 42
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rotating in the direction of the arrow 44. I'he mail pieces
are singulated by means of the feed roller 46
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rotating in the ~irection of the arrow 48 and the reverse
feed roller 50 rotaking in the direction shown by the arrow 52,
in order to function as a separation roller to assure that the mail
pieces are destacked singly, vertically downward.
A letter guide chute 54 guides the individual mail pieces
past the indicia detectors 55 and 57 which determine whether or
not there is postage indicia on the right edge of the mail pieces.
For purposes of clarity of illustration, means to support the feed
deck, feed rollers and guide chute are not shown. ~Iowevert it
will be understood that they may be suitably supported and driven
as is knownl either as part of feed deck or by attachment to the
frame 56 of the orienting and feeding apparatus 40.
After passing the indicia de.tectors 55 and 57, the mail ..
pieces move downward to the chute-like recep-tacle 58 which is
pivotable about the shaft 60 mounted in pivot supports 62 secured
to the frame 56.
The chute-like rece ~ cle 5B has longitudinaI side walls
59 and 61 extending between the open ends 63 and 65. A stepper
motor 64 is mounted on the frame 56 and drives the arm 66 secured
to the receptacle 58 for pivoting it -to any one of three positions.
The three positions which the chute-like receptacle 58
may assume are best seen in FIGURE 3. Thus, the a.rm 6~, when in
the position shown.in F~GURE 2, permits the receptacle to remain
in a central or neutral position in which the individual mail
. pieces drop into it without further movement. When the stepper
.. motor 64 receives a signal from
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the indicia detectors 55 and 57 in response to the detection
of the presence or absence of postage indicia on the right
edge of the piece of mail, i~ operates to ac~ivate the arm
66 to swing the chute 58 to the forward position referred
to as 58' in FIGURE 3. In this poc;ition the ejection drive
belt 68 rotating on the rollers 70 in the direction shown
by the arrow 72 projects through the slot 74 in the front
side 59 of the receptacle 5~, as best seen in FIGURE 3,
and frictionally contacts the mail piece therein to eject
it to the right out through the open end 61 to tbe conveyor
18. When no indicia is detected on the right edge-of the
mail piece thus indicating the indicia is located on the
left edge, the stepper motor 64 swings the receptacle to
the rear position shown as 58 " in FIGURE 3 where the ejection
drive belt 76 rotating on the rollers 78 in a direction
opposite to that of the arrow 72 projects through a slot
80 in the rear side 61 of the recep~acle 58 ~o contac~ mail
pieces therein and eject them to the l~ft out through the
open end 65 to the conveyor 20.
~ ~ The drive motor 82 for the ejection syste~ is secured
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to the frame 56 and through its drive pulley ~4 and the
I drive belt 85, moving in ~he direction shown by the arrow
.. 1 88, drives the ejection drive belt pulleys 70 and 78 continuously
without the need for gear boxes or on and off operation
in response to electrical signals.
Similar efficiency of operation can be provided for
th~ co~eyors }8 and 2n since the conveyor belt pulleys
90 and 92 can obtain their drive directly from pick ofE
rollers, not shown, making contact with the ejaction system
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drive iE desired.
An illustration of the bidirectional feeding operation
of the mail o~ienting and feeding system and app~ratus of
this invention is shown in FIGURE 1. An individual piece
of mail, the envelope 2, is shown ~ith postage indicia 4
on its front face in the upper right corner. ~hen the envelope
2 drops past the indicia detectors 55 and 57 into the receptacle
58, the ejection belt ~ ejects it to the right into the
conveyor 18 ~here transport belts 17 convey it, now shown
as envelope 2', to the output conveyor 22. However, an
envelope 6, the rear of which faces forward so that the
postage indicia ~ is adjacent the left edge on the reverse
side as viewed in FIGURE 1, will be ejected to the left
into the conveyor 20 where transport belts 1~ will convey
it, now shown as envelope 6', to the output conveyor 22.
In the output conveyor 22 the output conveyor belts 21 convey
a siDgle stream of envelopes, shown as 2" and 6'', which
: now have their indicia all located on the leading edge.
In the event that an envelope was present in the
stack 12 in an inverted condition with the postage indicia
~ , on the right edge reverse side it would be ejected to the
right and conveyed to have its pos~age indicia on a leading
edge although such indicia would be on the bottom, reverse
¦ of the envelopes 2'' and 6 " shown in FIGURE 1. In this
I eve~t, the output conveyor 22 can be provided with further
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i indici? detectors which determine if the indicia is on tha
top or bottom edge and thus generate signals operating gating
mechanisms to provide a bypass for such an envelope or to pro-
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vide means to invert the envelope 1~0 degrees to face it for
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alignment with the others. For example, as shown in F~GURE
4, an indici.a detector 100 in the pa-th of the lower l~adi.ng edge
of envelope 10~ will determine the presence of -the indicia in
this loca-tion. Detector 100 will control gate 104 to direct the
envelope to either a bypass conveyor 106 when in its solid line
position or a 180 degree inverting means such as twist belt 108
when in its dotted line positionD Such a twist belt is shown in
U~S. Patent 2,947,406 (Hazelton~ issued August 2, 1960. The bypass
conveyor 106 and twist belt 108 then merge into a common feed path
110, providing a flow of envelopes all having their indicia located
at a common position which could then serve as input for further
processing, such as feed to an optical character recognition
system for additional operations ~hat the user may desire.
Alternatively, the bypass conveyor 106 and twist belt 108 may be
omitted and the outpt may go directly to a facer-canceller machine
having facing and cancelling devices with a bypass and 180 degree
twist belt between them and an ind.icia detector in each so that
the final output constitutes a stream of faced and cancelled mail..
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